[Red Mist]
Plot:A young doctor in a US hospital administers a powerful and untested cocktail of drugs to a coma victim. But instead of curing him, it triggers a powerful "out-of-body" experience and enables the patient - a depraved and dangerous loner - to inhabit other people's bodies and, through them, take revenge on the bullying medical students who were accidentally responsible for his condition.

The doctor, who was herself a part of this group, is also targeted and as her colleagues are singled out and relentlessly picked off, she realises that she can trust no-one - friend or stranger - as this comatose killer moves in and out of bodies at will, getting ever closer as his murderous supernatural powers increase.

Cast:Arielle Kebbell, Sarah Carter, Stephen Dillane, Andrew Lee Potts, MyAnna Buring.

My Thoughts:Something new for a change.

Review:"Red Mist" is yet another horror/revenge tale, with a hot young cast and a few of the usual tricks up the ole' sleeve. The film follows Catherine Thomas (Kebbel), who is a med student on a scholarship. She does the usual stuff with her friends when she's not learning. Like hanging out at the local pub, and getting drunk and high on prescrip. drugs. And being that she and her group are med students, they have easy access to slip stuff out of the local pharmacy.

While hanging out one night, they are approached by the school loner Kenneth (Lee Potts). Kenneth is the typical "case", a loner, nerdy, and has a stutter. He's the prime pick-on target for Catherine and her crew. Although Catherine doesn't participate in the abuse herself....but at the same time doesn't do too much to stop it. Thus making her the compassionate one....but at the same time not compassionate enough to get her ex-communicated from the group by her asshole friends.

But on this night, Kenneth reveals a secret to the lead guy of the group. A secret which could get them all expelled from med school, and then bye-bye doctor careers. So they decide to use Catherine to lure Kenneth into a "Carrie-esque" trap, where they make him think he's "part of the gang"...in a cruel attempt to embarass him further and collect the goods he has on them by getting him as sloshed as they are.

But when it all goes wrong...and Kenneth OD's, they then decide to go the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" route by staying tightlipped on the whole incident, not wanting to jeopardize their future aspirations. Meanwhile Kenneth falls into a coma due to the "sloshing", but Catherine feels guilty and tries to help him with an experimental drug. Which turns into a huge mistake as Kenneth gains the "Scanner-like" ability to control people's minds from his hospital bed, and he uses them to carry out his bloody revenge on Catherine and her friends.

"Red Mist" is an interesting twist on the typical horror film tale of loner vengeance. It's kind of like "Carrie" but not really. Yet at the same time it's simplistic in the kills...but effective. The cast also does a good job in their performances. Kebbel, although you don't really feel much remorse or empathy for her character, plays the neutral girl very well, while the other cast members, including "Skinwalkers" Sarah Carter, play the evil friends of Catherine pretty well also.

You really find it easy to hate these kids, and for all of the right reasons. And I really couldn't help but crack a few smiles when Kenneth got even with most of them. The premise itself keeps the movie interesting, as in movies like this...the person usually seeks revenge dawning a mask and some scary ass outfit. But the cleverness of the film, written and directed by "Shrooms" guy Paddy Breathnach...lies in the fact that Kenneth's mask is other people.

Creating a scenario where an emotionally and metally damaged person can seek revenge from their hospital bed through other people is quite terrifying. Not knowing who you can trust, or who might be under his influence. And to create an even thicker layer of fear, as the movie goes on...Kenneth's powers grow stronger and more dangerous. So this gives the films sort-of-heroine Catherine more hell to deal with.

Adding to the already growing body count, the constant efforts to keep the police from finding out about what happened that night, and the fact that her friends are dying all around her and it might be too late before she figures out how it's happening, and who's responsible. Breathnach seems to have developed a slight niche for drug horror. This being the second film he's put together where some sort of drug-like substance leads to fatal results for a group of young people.

Maybe he's anti-drugs, or maybe he just likes to take something which is exploited in most young people's everyday lives, and put a horrific twist on it. Either way, "Red Mist" works for the most par, works alot better than "Shrooms" did. The films finale is full of twists and turns, mainly two which are pretty cleverly written and really put the film over the hump as far as entertainment value and suspense are concerned. "Red Mist" is not exactly a non-stop, high-octane, thrill ride...but it's certainly better than the standard straight-to-dvd horror film, and beats most traditional loner-payback horror pictures.

Positives:Good performances by most of the cast, an interesting and fresh story, one hell of a finale.

Negatives:Some gory deaths which would've been better suited as on-screen kills instead of off-screen ones.

Overall:Three out of four stars.





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